Kimi no Na wa. (Your Name.) – Using old concepts the right way

Kimi no Na wa. (Your Name.) is an Anime movie released in 2016 which uses a basic concept for it’s story that’s been around for many many years. Surprisingly, it uses this concept as a base and turns it around to something much better than what you might expect at first.

Yes, I watched it. Read on to know my views on it.

Now imma talk like this and not write all technical-ish stuff coz that stuff actually sucks.
So, recently there was a lot of hype about the movie – Kimi no Na wa. (English: Your Name.), and I was keeping my distance from it because I don’t have a very good experience with Anime movies. Some highly regarded movies such as Spirited Away, My neighbour Totoro and few others actually didn’t do much for me. They weren’t bad, maybe I expected a lot from them but after watching them, I just couldn’t consider them a masterpiece either.

Kimi no Na wa. on the other hand, was an opposite case. I didn’t expect much but in the end was blown away by it. The story was good, the soundtrack was awesome, animations were so well done.

Beyond this point you might find some minor spoilers. Though, I wouldn’t say spoilers since what I’ll tell you is something you can know from just watching the movie trailer which by the way I’ll post below as well.

Trailer:

Me blabbering about the movie with minor spoilers:

The old concept I’m talking talking about which this movie uses is the old switcharoo between the souls of a boy and a girl. Pretty generic, right? You’ve probably seen or atleast heard of a story like this once in your lifetime. I’ve seen various movies, K-dramas (Secret Garden – which is an awesome K-Drama by the way), and shows, which use this concept.

“But hey, Ken, if it’s so simple then why do you consider this movie good?”

Well… because it doesn’t use just that concept. For the first few portions of the movie you might think you know where this movie is headed. You will think this concept is all there is to it. I thought that. But then it introduces some plot twists which makes you finally realize that things are nowhere even close to how you thought they were. All you knew about the story till that point changes. Your view on the characters, your thought on where the story is headed, your laugh, everything changes! I won’t say how or why, but it does. When you watch the movie and reach the point I’m talking about, you’ll remember my words.

I really wanna emphasize on how old concepts which may sound so simple at first can give result to a masterpiece which can be completely different than what the original concept was. This happens far more than we realize and at times it gives birth to a masterpiece which is remembered by people for a long long time.

The staff behind movies like this deserve all the cheers they receive for taking a simple concept and turning it into something really extra ordinary.